The Red Badge of Courage, novel of the American Civil War by Stephen Crane, published in 1895 and considered to be his masterwork because of its perceptive depiction of warfare and of a soldier’s psychological turmoil. Crane was 25 years old and had no personal experience of war when he wrote the novel, which he based partly on a popular anthology, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War.

The Red Badge of Courage has been called the first modern war novel because, uniquely for its time, it tells of the experience of war from the point of view of an ordinary soldier. Henry Fleming is eager to demonstrate his patriotism in a glorious battle, but when the slaughter starts, he is overwhelmed with fear and flees the battlefield. Ironically, he receives his “red badge of courage” when he is slightly wounded by being struck on the head by a deserter. He witnesses a friend’s gruesome death and becomes enraged at the injustice of war. The courage of common soldiers and the agonies of death cure him of his romantic notions. He returns to his regiment and continues to fight on with true courage and without illusions.

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Nov. 1, 1871 Newark, N.J., U.S. June 5, 1900 Badenweiler, Baden, Ger. American novelist, poet, and short-story writer, best known for his novels Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893) and The Red Badge of Courage (1895) and the short stories “The Open Boat,” “The Bride Comes to...

Huston was less fortunate with his 1951 adaptation of Stephen Crane’s literary classic The Red Badge of Courage. Real-life World War II hero Audie Murphy starred in this story of a young Union soldier who deserts his company during the American Civil War. With the Korean War raging, MGM executives felt that the film’s antiwar message was too blatant and cut ...